Funktion-One’s first time exhibiting at NAMM drew a great response from visitors and fellow exhibitors. Over the four days of the show – held from 25-28 January at the Anaheim Convention Center in California – a busy stand welcomed a host of familiar faces, from local distributors Sound Investment to the music legends like Bootsy Collins.

The headline news was, of course, the launch of the new F124 – a truly unique addition to the bass speaker market, featuring horn-loaded technology in a 24-inch enclosure. As Funktion-One co-founder Tony Andrews noted: “With the addition of the F124, I feel that we’ve got a complete range of the highest performing bass speakers available.”

On the Saturday of NAMM, Tony also took part in an hour-long Q&A session, hosted by former Pro AVL Asia editor Barney Jameson. The conversation covered Tony’s career, ranging from the early days of establishing the pro audio industry in the 1970s with Turbosound to reinventing club culture with Funktion-One.

Back on the stand, a constant flow of visitors kept the team busy. For Sound Investment co-owners Todd Konecny and Dan Agne, the show served to underline the instant impact of the Funktion-One effect. “I was blown over by the amount of good will and positive vibrations that people were bringing to the booth,” said Todd. “Funktion-One equipment has a particular charm in its visual aesthetics which had the effect of drawing in many passers-by, and Tony did not hesitate to give listening demos at a moment’s notice. I got the impression that most people were highly impressed that the sonic performance was on par with the visual elegance of the equipment and wanted to learn more about Funktion-One in general.”

Dan added: “We found the crowd response to be very enthusiastic – people were excited about our first time at NAMM. We received a good deal of interest in new areas of installation and production.”

As Funktion-One manager Ann Andrews noted, the company’s first showing at NAMM led to some interesting introductions. “Our stand was always busy and it was a good showcase for our loudspeakers. Most trade shows are great for meeting with distributors and dealers – while NAMM was too, it also attracts artists, which was refreshing. We have good relationships with lots of musicians and DJs, so we enjoyed re-connecting with some of them and meeting up with some new artists for the first time.”

For Tony, the location of the Funktion-One stand was ideal and helped ensure it was a successful show. “It was great having a hall that is dedicated to pro audio. From our point of view, that’s much better than being mixed in with the lighting companies. Every time we turned on the BR132, even at a very low level, people gravitated to it from all over the hall. It was great.”